SIMPOC: The Thinking Computer

The entire human population is attacked by a very suspicious virus. SIMPOC's programmer doesn't come in to work, that day, the next, or ever. The commander of the space station Oasis, Joan Herl, is forced to abandon the station because of dwindling resources. When they land on earth, they are attacked by another thinking computer who would do anything to protect itself and to continue thinking.

Zombies in Love

Jack Kershaw just wants to hold on to his new job at Lisa Alioto's pizza parlor, and to keep Lisa from finding out that he's a zombie. Jack learns that he and Lisa are in serious danger. His second chance at life is the inadvertent result of a lab experiment by two graduate students. Winthrop University - a school which knows how to keep its secrets - will do anything necessary to conceal that someone on campus raised the dead.

Heaven, Hell, or Houston

After a less than successful stint as the Governor's security detail, the volatile, alcoholic Texas Ranger Jay McCutcheon wants nothing more than to get home to his wife and baby and save his marriage. He thinks the only thing standing between him and his family is five hundred rain-soaked miles of dark pavement. But he's dead wrong. Isandro Dianira has just broken out of prison. He's been possessed by an evil voice that has spoken to him since childhood. With his gang-banger thugs, he leaves a bloody trail on his way to Mexico.

Black Like Me

Writer John Howard Griffin (1920-1980) decided to perform an experiment in order to learn from the inside out how one race could withstand the second class citizenship imposed on it by another race. Through medication, he dyed his skin dark and left his family and home in Texas to find out.

Wayne says:"This book brings back memories..."

Publisher's Summary

You are Dr. James Healey and last week you were a genius that was before the DNA experiments. Before the accident you said could never happen since then you have felt your mind decaying a little more each day. You have watched your wife slip into imbecility. You have seen the crowds growing murderous with animal terror, the president of the United States babbling and drooling on tv only one thing separates you from them. You, at least, know what is happening as you search for the cure for the horror you have unleashed upon the world as each day the dimming of your mind lowers your chance of finding it!

I had no idea this book was from the 70s, until it was over and the copyright year was stated. I had wondered why there was no mention of cell phones or the internet. But there were several references to "war gaming" which I assumed was like Call Of Duty on the Xbox with internet friends. Hmm, now I'm curious what exactly the kids were doing during their gaming. Oh, and I thought it was SUPER weird that the parents were ok with their 16 year old son chugging a beer, openly in front of them, in their kitchen. I guess that was acceptable back then???

This was a funny and entertaining book. Everyone catches the "stupid sickness" and they become stupid. But where they're stupid, a lot don't realize they're becoming stupid. I had thought too much emphasis was given on the importance of IQs and knowing what your IQ was. Now that I see this was written in the 70s, I guess knowing your IQ back then was some kind of fad.

I LOVED the narrator! Without him, this book wouldn't have been half as good. He's got the voice of your awkward humorous uncle who knows a little about everything. Great voice!!! His female voices were off a little, but easily overlooked.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com.

Where does IQ 83 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Although the story is a bit depressing it is an interesting theoretical concept on what could go wrong in scientific research. It's funny to hear such dated material compared to how far we've progressed in social attitudes from racism and sexism to real science since the 1970's.

Would you be willing to try another book from Arthur Herzog III? Why or why not?

I did. I bought The Swarm, I hope it's better.

What about Charles Henderson Norman’s performance did you like?

I loved Charles Norman's performance. His character voices and tone throughout are why I kept listening.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Dr. James Healy and his team of scientists are on the verge of a breakthrough in gene therapy. Together, they work tirelessly to complete the tests that would allow for the next step: testing on volunteer humans. However, DNA-altered virus being tested breaks free in a quiet way, allowing it to spread like a common cold. Dr. Healy is the first to figure out what happened and sadly he must watch as his family and friends become stupid even as he himself struggles to remain intelligent long enough to find a cure.

The book starts off a touch slow, but then starts delving into the science, which hooked me. Dr. Healy is in charge of the treatment of a young girl (Cathy Gobrin) who suffers from a metabolic genetic disease. If she doesn’t live on a special diet, her metabolism goes sideways and her IQ drops to the point where she can barely feed herself. This is probably Dr. Healy’s motivation for having set the research and experiments in place for a new gene therapy treatment.

There is a lot of character development, which I enjoyed. It gave the story a harder punch when my favorite characters started to decline due to this unleashed disease. While the book is written with an almost 1950s flavor (no cussing, no cell phones, etc.), there are female scientists and cultural and ethnic diversity in the characters. I really appreciated that this scifi story wasn’t dominated by White male characters making all the decisions.

The stupid sickness, which is a practical thing to call this new man-made disease, made it hard for the affected to concentrate, often dredging up rhymes or bits of song from the person’s childhood and playing them on a loop in the background all the time. It’s like when you have a bit of song stuck in your head that won’t leave. Memory and impulse control also become shoddy. I really enjoyed all the social implications of having a stupid population. How would the government keep other nations from taking over? Would marriages hold up to impatient spouses? Would school systems even be around after a generation? It was a great way to explore all these questions and more.

The book fell into natural thirds. The first third was a lot of character development and science info dumps (fine with me). The second third is where we the reader know the altered virus has escaped confinement but the characters haven’t figured it out yet (plenty of yummy suspense here). The last third has the most action as many of our characters are short on impulse control and Dr. Healy and his friends race against the virus’s clock to find a remedy (also a very good section). Over all, I found this a very satisfying story that came with plenty of philosophical food for thought.

Narration: Charles Henderson Norman was a good fit. We see almost the entire book through Dr. Healy’s eyes and Norman made a very good Dr. Healy. He also had distinct voices for both female and male characters. He has a goo voice for little girls too.

It depends on the friend. Some may find the concepts and/or vocabulary intimidating.

What other book might you compare IQ 83 to and why?

IQ 83 is really a statement on humanity as a whole. What is important really? Are we defined by our intelligence? I found it somewhat a book on philosophy. As I generally don't read books with philosophical undertones for pleasure, I cannot think of a title that would compare.

Which character – as performed by Charles Henderson Norman – was your favorite?

The voices in characters head were delivered hilariously

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, the subject and concepts were rather heavy and became somewhat monotonous over time.

Any additional comments?

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast.

I listened to the audible version of this book.I enjoyed it a lot!It had some very slow parts,but they are bearable.Mr Hertzog wrote this in 1978 and YES the science is old.It's science fiction and it took me back to a time before computers when books and ideas ruled.PC or not.Scientists are working on a virus,it gets out..as is always the case.People are not really sick,they just get 'dumber'.Narrated by Charles Henderson Norman,who does a wonderful job,we struggle along with the lab and cdc to understand where this will take us."I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast or MalarHouse